According to a Southern African Migration Programme study, the attitude of South Africans towards immigrants is improving. In 2006, 75 percent of South Africans didn’t want refugees in the country. By 2010, that number had dropped to 57 percent. However, the positive trend is not borne out by the incidence of attacks on foreigners. Just last week, newspapers showed pictures of South Africans looting immigrants’ shops. African foreign nationals, to be precise. There is a perception in some sectors that foreigners will steal jobs from local people. Perhaps the difference is that they are more willing to do the jobs that South Africans are unwilling to do. How you can say someone is stealing a job you don’t want to do is beyond my understanding. The study also states this harsh fact: “Globally, South Africa is still the country most opposed to immigration, where nearly 80 percent of citizens either support prohibition on the entry of migrants, or would like to place strict limits on it.” In the light of the findings, it should come as no surprise that foreign Africans are treated in the shameful way they are. Shockingly, immigrants from other African countries are treated with suspicion. They are seen as criminals and disease-bearers. In fact, the study showed that 41 percent support mandatory HIV testing of refugees. You can tell a lot about a country by how it treats refugees – those poor souls who fled the land of their birth to become foreigners in a country where they knew no one, and didn’t even know how they would make ends meet once they got there. Often all they carry with them when they cross borders is hope. There might be fear, but it is hope that drives them elsewhere. We, too, once lived in a time where many of our leaders knew it was better to live elsewhere as refugees than to live in fear at home. We must reject racism, tribalism, xenophobia and all ideas that suggest one human is worth less than another. What is the root issue, then? It is a matter of resources. People feel that there aren’t enough resources for them and that instead of looking after South Africans first, the government is forced to take care of refugees, at their expense. Where the idea comes from is a mystery. But if South Africans felt they had opportunities in their own country, they would not treat other poor people the way some treat them right now. Even if we were a poor country, the common value among all African people, ubuntu/botho, demands that we treat them as neighbours. Ubuntu teaches us that we can never turn any person in need away. Ubuntu also teaches us that, no matter how little you have, you share with a traveller. When Thabo Mbeki made his famous speech, he did not say “I am a South African”. He said: “I am an African.”
Posted on: Thu, 06 Jun 2013 13:07:24 +0000
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